Arizona weekly citizen., 1887-07-02

msnIiness. the infinite tenderness of the Divine teacher. Woman embraced the doctrines 8s with heavenly insight, and found them 70 impart a sublime self abnecgtion, a hope, a faith uDshskBble, by which they encountered persecution and death with heroic constancy,
 They were not more exempt from great suffering than the other sex. The equality of woman wBs acknowledged by her equality of persecution,
 Externally, her situation would seem to be much more than under pagan su- premacy. She was torn to pieces by wild beasts in the Colosseum. She was broken upon the wheel, and stretched mon tbe rack. The cstscombs of Rome still bear testimony to her stead fastuess. Her status was not m the eyes Of the world m advance, she had awakened from epecuiian luxury to an everlasting hope. realized through pathway of torture. The pagan priest ess now became the Christian saint, she pagan yestal became the Christian nun. Then came the eruption of the bar barisns from the north, bringing with them their grim equality of sex, Hni fuish in. and reverence for their inspired women, mixing the races with a new but majestic organism. and infus- ing great elements Of Gspira- ton and power. In all this womans head was not anointed with a more be- uigp chrism than that poured upon the head of her brother. She was part and marcel of the sublime ministrRtion of pain which is the perpetual baptism of great ideas. She wss Rn equal factor. l.-aNnnrnank of the rnce; sharing in the sufferings, and be- nighted by Ihe errors and superstitlons of the age, Ohivslry placed her queen of grace and beauty, to which wei owe much of the respect which should never be lost to the sex.
 Ia the slow rise of commerce and lit erature We find the Saints Elizabeth. Theresa and others. women O. saoctisy and intelligence, but much, very much, under the sway of the priest. Men are mostly soldiers, and the women of ca pacity take tbe field by his side. or holds the feuda castle against RggressiTe barJns, she is an Joan of Arc, a countess of Montcori, or a Queen Phillippl. In all she Is level with the times, and her brother.
 The reformation under Martin Luther threw the sex somewhat n the back grodnd, and the Protestant woman binds her brow anew with the crown of thOrns The new ideas make their way through streams of humsr blood poured forth by men and women alike. The latter sinks into the background. she can DO longer be nun or Bbbess. She might die a mar tyr, but she will not be a canOrlzed saint.
 The Roman Catholic church utilized her best sensibilities, and turned her natural ambition into sacred channels. Not SO with ProtestRnism. The church afforded her DO field Rs an BppeDdage to man. She witnessed and shared m the sacrifice of the sect to which she belong ed, and she was driven periorce to study the dogmas t. winch she subscribed.
 Hence ID polemical community 1t was natural that woman-like Anna Hutchinson should become the first in this country to lead her sex into the in- tricste field of Inds pendent thinking. and the right of Q woman 10 sit in judgment upon pulpit, as we'll as other oraoles. From that time to the present hour. the sex has been slowly but surely asserting themselxes. They have broken out here and there. as m the case of Anna Lee, the founder of Shakerism. Rather apt to lend themselves to masculine lesders, greatly to their own detTiment, they have hays been--the majority Ot them conservative in all their actualities. Margaret Fuller, never entirely clear ID her views. had an extensive following beca1se of what she suggested. The large numbers of women who have been for century or more engaged n liter Rry pursuits have contributed largely to the wave that has ID our time rolled on ward and borne upon it's surface this turbulence eliminating in the claim 10 suffrage by the sex.
 Now, whether women will at length secure thIs manly privIledge IS matter Of little comparative moment. As half of our common humanity. half o' the na- ti0nal odium, because of our moral ob- hquities. must rest upon her, and she must either reject marriage altogether, CT better. redeem the obligations of wife and mother.
 That both sexes are growing disin- clinei to marriage Is beyond question. That the women of the past, sub0-di- nate, and looking to marriage as the pri- mary resource, is obliteTated. hes ceased to be, Is also beyond question. At pres ent her attitude to the other sex is ag- gressive and defiant. The priest is lns- lng his power over her. She IS not ashamed of her age; she IS not at all troubled at being called Gn old maid. she does not shrink from hard work; she may seem 10 be B little grim. for she eschews all vanity-thst vice which has almost the grace of virtue ID the make up of an agreeable woman. Upon the whole she is more than mans equal. PArI. GRrGGRY M ID.